Elections without campaigning? How is this possible?
TDG elections are annual. About four weeks before the election, the TDG executive committee should send out notice of the election: in particular, the place and time.
If the TDG has advance polls or mail-in ballots, the executive committe should provide instructions for TDG members to cast their votes in these ways.
As well, the communique should remind voters on how to vote more wisely. This article will focus on the message about being wary of campaigning in TDG elections.
The TDG executive committee will be tasked to find the words about campaigning. But the committee does not try to enforce the intent of that wording. In other words, the TDG members are free to accept this wording and how it will apply it to their voting decision.
What constitutes “campaigning”?
Here are the obvious signs of campaigning:
1) If there are lawn signs saying “Vote for Jack,” TDG members should not vote for Jack—even if they think Jack would be a capable neighborhood representative. There are other capable neighbors to vote for.
2) If someone is passing out pamphlets in the neighborhood that say “Vote for Jack,” TDG members should not vote for Jack.
3) If Jack is out in the neighborhood asking neighbors to vote for him, TDG members should not vote for Jack.
4) If Jack appears to be part of a slate of contenders in other neighborhoods, TDG members should not vote for Jack. It should not matter if the slate is promoting a specific mandate or is nebulous about its alliance.
The TDG voters should shun campaigners. Campaigners are not the politicians we want in governance. Campaigners have favors to pay off. Those favors will cloud the decision making. We will not be getting the best decisions.
Here are some subtle forms of campaigning:
1) Jack might dominate the discussion in town hall meetings.
2) Jack might become friendlier than usual a couple of weeks before the election.
3) Jack might be hanging around the polling station during election day, greeting all voters before they vote.
These intentions to campaign are more difficult to ascertain. So, in these cases, each TDG member should determine whether they believe Jack is campaigning or not. Other capable neighbors can be voted for.
Campaigning may still find electoral success at the neighborhood tier. But campaigners are unlikely to reach the higher tiers, where collaboration skills are better known.
Conclusion
The “no campaigning” aspect of the TDG will be more about educating and messaging, not enforcing.
Campaigners are not the politicians we want in governance.
When a neighbor believes someone is campaigning for the TDG neighborhood representative position, the neighbor should find another capable neighbor to vote for.
It is that simple.
Published on Medium 2024
